The River We Have Wrought
The River We Have Wrought

Author: John O. Anfinson

Publisher: U of Minnesota Press

Published: 2005-02-01

Total Pages: 392

ISBN-13: 9780816640249

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A sweeping history of the upper Mississippi introduces readers to the rich natural and human history of this region, from the earliest European explorers through the massive engineering projects that are changing the destiny of the river. (History)

Slavery in the Upper Mississippi Valley, 1787-1865
Slavery in the Upper Mississippi Valley, 1787-1865

Author: Christopher P. Lehman

Publisher: McFarland

Published: 2014-01-10

Total Pages: 229

ISBN-13: 0786485892

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Although the passing of the Northwest Ordinance in 1787 banned African American slavery in the Upper Mississippi River Valley, making the new territory officially "free," slavery in fact persisted in the region through the end of the Civil War. Slaves accompanied presidential appointees serving as soldiers or federal officials in the Upper Mississippi, worked in federally supported mines, and openly accompanied southern travelers. Entrepreneurs from the East Coast started pro-slavery riverfront communities in Illinois, Wisconsin, Iowa, and Minnesota to woo vacationing slaveholders. Midwestern slaves joined their southern counterparts in suffering family separations, beatings, auctions, and other indignities that accompanied status as chattel. This revealing work explores all facets of the "peculiar institution" in this peculiar location and its impact on the social and political development of the United States.

Historical Agriculture and Soil Erosion in the Upper Mississippi Valley Hill Country
Historical Agriculture and Soil Erosion in the Upper Mississippi Valley Hill Country

Author: Stanley W. Trimble

Publisher: CRC Press

Published: 2017-10-23

Total Pages: 290

ISBN-13: 9781138071612

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"This thought-provoking book demonstrates how processes of landscape transformation, usually illustrated only in simplified or idealized form, play out over time in real, complex landscapes. Trimble illustrates how a simple landscape disturbance, generated in this case by agriculture, can spread an astonishing variety of altered hydrologic and sedimentation processes throughout a drainage basin. The changes have spatial and temporal patterns forced on them by the distinctive topographic structure of drainage basins. "Through painstaking field surveys, comparative photographic records, careful dating, a skillful eye for subtle landscape features, and a geographer's interdisciplinary understanding of landscape processes, the author leads the reader through the arc of an instructive and encouraging story. Farmers--whose unfamiliarity with new environmental conditions led initially to landscape destruction, impoverishment, and instability--eventually adapted their land use and settlement practices and, supported by government institutions, recovered and enriched the same working landscape. "For the natural scientist, Historical Agriculture and Soil Erosion in the Upper Mississippi Valley Hill Country illustrates how an initially simple alteration of land cover can set off a train of unanticipated changes to runoff, erosion, and sedimentation processes that spread through a landscape over decades--impoverishing downstream landscapes and communities. Distinct zones of the landscape respond differently and in sequence. The effects take a surprisingly long time to spread through a landscape because sediment moves short distances during storms and can persist for decades or centuries in relatively stable forms where it resists further movement because of consolidation, plant reinforcement, and low gradients. "For the social scientist, the book raises questions of whether and how people can be alerted early to their potential for environmental disturbance, but also for learning and adopting restorative practices. Trimble's commitment to all aspects of this problem should energize both groups." --Professor Thomas Dunne, Bren School of Environmental Science and Management, UC Santa Barbara

Immortal River
Immortal River

Author: Calvin R. Fremling

Publisher: Univ of Wisconsin Press

Published: 2004-12-31

Total Pages: 452

ISBN-13: 9780299202941

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This engaging and well-illustrated primer to the Upper Mississippi River presents the basic natural and human history of this magnificent waterway. Immortal River is written for the educated lay-person who would like to know more about the river's history and the forces that shape as well as threaten it today. It melds complex information from the fields of geology, ecology, geography, anthropology, and history into a readable, chronological story that spans some 500 million years of the earth's history. Like the Mississippi itself, Immortal River often leaves the main channel to explore the river's backwaters, floodplain, and drainage basin. The book's focus is the Upper Mississippi, from Minneapolis, Minnesota, to Cairo, Illinois. But it also includes information about the river's headwaters in northern Minnesota and about the Lower Mississippi from Cairo south to the river's mouth ninety miles below New Orleans. It offers an understanding of the basic geology underlying the river's landscapes, ecology, environmental problems, and grandeur.

Grand Excursions on the Upper Mississippi River
Grand Excursions on the Upper Mississippi River

Author: Curtis C. & Elizabeth M. Roseman & Roseman

Publisher: University of Iowa Press

Published: 2009-09-01

Total Pages: 271

ISBN-13: 1587294850

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In June 1854 the Grand Excursion celebrated in festive style the completion of the Chicago and Rock Island Railroad to the Mississippi River. Hundreds of dignitaries including newspaper editors and other journalists; politicians; academics, writers and artists; business and industry leaders; and railroad officials were among those who traveled by rail from Chicago to Rock Island, Illinois, then by steamboat to St. Paul in Minnesota Territory. The travelers were shown a region undergoing rapid settlement by Europeans—an area of great natural beauty offering many promises for additional development. One hundred and fifty years later, the thirteen essays in this volume examine the activities and environments of the 1854 Grand Excursion and place them in the context of an evolving regional identity for the Upper Mississippi River Valley based on the economy, culture, geography, and history of the area. In a series of “excursions,” the contributors explore the building of the Chicago and Rock Island Railroad, eastern newspaper accounts of the 1854 excursion, steamboating, the area’s pictorial landscape, passenger trains along the scenic river, the genesis and features of river towns, the control of the river for navigation, the development of preserves, parks, and recreation areas, the lumber industry, and commercial fishing. The book concludes by examining the resurgence of river-oriented development, as river towns are once again embracing the Mississippi. Generously illustrated with maps, engravings, ephemera, and historic and present-day photographs, Grand Excursions on the Upper Mississippi River will be of interest to tourists and residents of the area, river aficionados, railroad and steamboat history buffs, as well as academics interested in the history, geography, and regional development of the area.

History of the Upper Mississippi Valley
History of the Upper Mississippi Valley

Author: N. H. Winchell

Publisher: Forgotten Books

Published: 2016-08-13

Total Pages: 742

ISBN-13: 9781333217365

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Excerpt from History of the Upper Mississippi Valley: Containing the Geology of the Upper Mississippi and Saint Louis Valleys; Explorers and Pioneers of Minnesota; Outlines of the History of Minnesota We have been especially fortunate in enlisting the interest of Rev. Edward D. Neill, J. Fletcher Williams, Charles S. Bryant, and Prof. N. H. Winchell, whose able productions are herewith presented. We also acknowledge ourselves indebted to Hon. Nathan Richardson, of Little Falls Almon P. Barker, of Princeton and the valuable writings of the late Rev. Sherman Hall, of Sauk Rapids. In general terms we express sincere thanks to the Clergy, the Press, the Pioneers, and Citizens, who, with a few unimportant exceptions, have extended universal encouragement and endorsement. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.

A Projectile Point Guide for the Upper Mississippi River Valley
A Projectile Point Guide for the Upper Mississippi River Valley

Author: Robert F. Boszhardt

Publisher: University of Iowa Press

Published: 2005-04

Total Pages: 105

ISBN-13: 1587294419

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This useful guide provides a key to identifying the various styles of points found along the Upper Mississippi River in the Driftless region stretching roughly from Dubuque, Iowa, to Red Wing, Minnesota, but framed within a somewhat larger area extending from the Rock Island Rapids at the modern Moline -- Rock Island area to the Falls of St. Anthony at Minneapolis -- St. Paul. In addition to drawings of each style, Robert Boszhardt provides other accepted names as well as names of related points, age, distribution, a description (including length and width), material, and references for each type. The guide is meant for the many avocational archaeologists who collect projectile points in the Upper Midwest and will be a useful reference tool for professional field archaeologists as well. Book jacket.